SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/13/2015
2:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Sanctuary
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Ezekiel 40:48-43:12
Message
of the verses: Before we get into
these verses I want to talk about some things that are very similar from my
study of in the book of Revelation and this is one of those things that has to
be from the Lord as I am struggling greatly trying to understand all of the measurements
that we find in these last chapters of the book of Ezekiel. Now not all of these last nine chapters are
about measurements, but much of it is and at this time I would like to quote
from John MacArthur’s commentary on the eleventh chapter of Revelation. These quotes will actually come from his
sermon that he did on the first two verses of chapter eleven. Now I believe that the description that John
sees in his vision is the Tribulation temple and what Ezekiel sees in his
vision is the millennial temple, however the concept of doing the measuring is
similar so we will look at what MacArthur says about this: “John is told to do some measuring in verse
1. Let's call this the temple measured. There was given me a measuring rod like
a staff and someone said, `Rise and measure the temple of God and the
altar and those who
worship in it.'" Now John had a lot of visions and every once in a while
he got involved in his vision, like in chapter 10 when he had the vision of the
great angel and the little book in the angel's hand, he was told to eat the
little book. Now that's getting involved in the vision. And here again he is
very involved in the vision and he is told by someone, it says, to take this
rod and measure the temple of God.
“Now let's break this verse down
so we can get a grip on it. There was given me...he says, probably by the same
person who also spoke to him, the someone who said, likely an angelic being, if
you go back to 10..chapter 10 verse 8, there you have an angelic being speaking
to him. I think if it were to be God or Christ, they would probably be
identified as such, maybe not but it seems best that an angelic voice is here
speaking to John and also is the one giving him this measuring rod.
“The measuring rod, like a staff, was just that. It was a rod used in
ancient times for measuring. John has just received this prophecy, chapter 10
verse 11, and he has been told that he's supposed to say many more things,
write many more things. It's almost as if chapter 10 verse 11 is a renewed commission
for John to write the book of Revelation. And now as he is ready to write, he
is going to be actually involved in the very vision about which he will write.
And the first thing he's told to do is take a measuring rod. The word is
calamosit refers to a reed that grew in the Jordan Valley, it's the name of a
reed. And they grew down in the lowlands of the Jordan Valley and they grew to
be somewhere between ten and fifteen feet high. They were a hallow stalk, like
a bamboo stalk and because they were so very light they were cut down and cut
into proper lengths and used as measuring instruments like a yardstick. They
were also used, by the way, when they were refined and shaved down with some
kind of an instrument to a point as a pen. We find such use even in the Scripture
and they were used as a walking staff. So they had a lot of use. So here John
is told to take this stick, we don't know how long it was, it's to be used as a
measuring instrument. He says, “Rise, get up and measure the temple of God and
the altar and those who worship in it."
“Now the question
obviously is...why is he doing this? What is the point of this? Well,
there are two things that occur in the
Bible with regard to God in measuring out things, one is judgment and the other
is ownership. God in Old Testament history has at times measured out something
for destruction. That is to say He measures it out. It's a way of saying,
"I'm confining My destruction to this particular area, or this particular
city, or this particular location, or this particular people. But in this case
that doesn't seem the best understanding f the measurement. It is also true
that in the Old Testament God also measured out things as being His own, His
own possession, personal possession for the sake of preservation. For example,
in chapter 21 of the book of Revelation you have also very carefully measuring
out of the city, the new Jerusalem. Verse 15 of Revelation 21, the one who
spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and
its walls. And the measuring is of the
new Jerusalem, the heavenly holy city in which the saints will dwell forever
and ever. And it seems it's in a similar usage of the measuring that John is
instructed to act here, that God wants him to measure out His temple because it
belongs to Him. He's identifying it as His own. That is particularly true
because he says measure the temple and the altar and those who worship in it.
This appears then to be an act of defining the parameters of God's property,
what it is that belongs to Him, or better, who it is that belongs to Him. In
fact it would be easy to understand that God is saying, "I am going to
measure out the people of the temple, the people who worship in it, the people
to whom it belongs, namely Israel." And if you understand that God is measuring
off Israel for some protective, preserving, favored position, then you get the
idea.”
Ok we will stop at this point, but we can take what John was doing and
better understand what Ezekiel is doing as both are measuring things because
they belong to God. Now in the 43rd
chapter of Ezekiel and verses 7-12 we read the following in the NLT: “7 The LORD said to me, “Son of man, this is
the place of my throne and the place where I will rest my feet. I will live
here forever among the people of Israel. They and their kings will not defile
my holy name any longer by their adulterous worship of other gods or by
honoring the relics of their kings who have died. 8 They put their idol altars
right next to mine with only a wall between them and me. They defiled my holy
name by such detestable sin, so I consumed them in my anger. 9 Now let them
stop worshiping other gods and honoring the relics of their kings, and I will
live among them forever. 10 “Son of man, describe to the people of Israel the
Temple I have shown you, so they will be ashamed of all their sins. Let them
study its plan, 11 and they will be ashamed of what they have done. Describe to
them all the specifications of the Temple-including its entrances and exits-and
everything else about it. Tell them about its decrees and laws. Write down all
these specifications and decrees as they watch so they will be sure to remember
and follow them. 12 And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness!
The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy. Yes, this is
the basic law of the Temple.” God tells
Ezekiel why and what He is doing and the reason He showed Ezekiel this vision,
but we can still understand that this all belongs to God and that is why He is
having it measured and Ezekiel taking down the notes to tell the exiles and
also to tell us just as John is telling the churches of his day and also all
the churches who have read what he wrote including us today. I can say that I get a bit frustrated from
all of the measurements but the Lord, through the quote from John MacArthur has
given me a much better understanding of what we are seeing in these chapters.
In the section from today’s lesson we see more of the measuring of the
temple and we see that it is very large indeed.
It tells of sacrifices that will be going on in the Millennial Kingdom
which as I said will be done to look back at what the Lord Jesus Christ did on
the cross. We also see in the first part
of chapter 43 the glory of the Lord returning to the temple as it will do at
the beginning of the Millennial kingdom.
We will end with a quote from someone that I have not quoted for a
while, Stewart Briscoe who writes “The Glory of the Lord:” Ezekiel and his guide walked and measured
till having looked at and measured every cubit of the structure, Ezekiel was
led by his tireless guide to the gate in the outer court that faced east. To his inexpressible joy, Ezekiel saw
something he had longed to see for over 19 years. The glory of the Lord which he had so vividly
portrayed in his first vision and which to his horror he had seen depart from
the temple, was once more appearing in the eastern sky. Nothing was different about the eternal glory
(Ezekiel. 43:2).
“Ezekiel fell on his face as he was again overcome with the sense of the
presence of the Lord. The old familiar brightness
was there; the sound like the rushing waters filled his ears. Once more the temple where He longed to dwell
among His people (43:3-4).
“Ecstatic, Ezekiel was led by the Spirit in the inner court where he
gazed on the transformed temple. It was
no longer just a beautiful building, but a vehicle for the living God, a vessel
for His presence. For the moment he
forgot about cubits and hand breadths and reveled in the glory and immensity of
the God who lives. God—immeasurably greater
than man’s measurement, grander than the greatest design of the most ingenious
person. God of gods. This God Ezekiel worshiped, for one more the
Lord was visibly among His people (43:5).”
5/13/2015 3:42 PM
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